Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground
by Rogue A.I
Summary: set in the middle of .hackINFECTION. Kite, the twin blade bestowed with dark powers, is losing himself. He is fairly depressed and runs to his sanctuary to reflect on events. I'm not too good at summaries! K just in case
1. Chapter 1

**This is my first .hack/ fic! This is more of a filler, I am aware I haven't been that active, and I need fresh meat! This is a one-shot (if that is what this fic should be classified as) unless reviewers have ideas about me continuing etc! Constructive critisicm worshipped- I mean welcomed. Sorry if Kite seems OOC, I need to learn more of .hack/. One last note, if you review, please do point out if Kite seems OOC and what I can do to fix it! Also, I'm guessing that there is a depressed side to Kite, please correct me on anything I get wrong!  
**

**Flames shall be put out by Mistral here!**

_Mistral_**: _Rue Zot!_** Nyaa-ha-ha! D

Disclaimer: If I owned .hack, the World would exist and there would be a million manga books...me no own, you no sue! whispers That, and besides Mistral here shall fry you all! Ahem, ON with the FIC!

_**Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground**_

The Chaos Gate wavered as the twin blade input the keywords, his avatar's eyes dull with worry and compassion. The gold rings nobody took any special notice of as they warped in and out of servers and fields enveloped him as he let out a sigh. Soon enough, he shimmered into view in front of a huge chapel. The twin blade looked up at the gothic spires and then focused on the doorway that lay at the end of the stone path. He paced briskly to the door, adjusting his red decorated hat. He arrived at the doorway and hesitantly entered the church.

The twin blade's unusual bracelet, invisible to his eyes, glinted in the sunlight streaming through the stained glass. The bracelet that was the start of the whole saga... The twin blade, known as Kite to his team-mates, found himself drawn to the statue once more and strode down the aisle, the haunting music filling his hearing.

Kite stopped at the barrier and stared at the plaque on the plinth that held up a stone clad Aura, chains binding her to this holy ground. Although he knew that the girl,_ his _Aura, was not trapped in a prison of stone, he still saw the look in the statue's eyes, the mournful, perhaps slightly piercing eyes that seemed to plead to be rescued, for the chains to be snapped away from her form.

_Flashback_

"The girl...she looks so sad..." BlackRose was enchanted by the way that this strange statue seemed to watch over this hallowed building. Kite glanced at her, knowing that in his heart of hearts, this girl was familiar, too familiar. He noticed a plaque, inscribed with unintelligible words. He read it out reluctantly.

"Skeith, Innis, Magus...I can't read the rest, the inscription's faded..." He stopped abruptly when a smooth voice echoed off the stone walls. The party whipped around, coming nearly face to face with the winged blademaster...

_Flashback end_

Kite looked away from the statue. Why had he come to a place so haunting and depressing? Where he had come to terms with his power, a power that could bring salvation, or destruction? That blademaster accused him of being a hacker. Kite knew he was doing the right thing, the twin blade was in control of his power...well, as in control as he could be with a power so unpredictable, so unpredictable...it could leave real people lying, comatose, with no future, in a hospital somewhere.

He shook his head gently. Somewhere, deep inside, he had been hiding feelings of doubt and mourning, negative feelings. Everyone he knew was in danger. He inadvertently remembered Orca of the Azure Sea; no, not Orca. His friend, Yasuhiko, the powerful warrior, lying frail and not moving in a bed. It pierced Kite's heart to think of Yasuhiko. Why was the twin blade brought into this? It was Orca's book...

Kite wiped his streaming eyes. He mustn't remember the past, he must launch himself into the future, a future where, if Kite prevailed, there would be no mysterious illnesses from a mere computer game...but this was more than a computer game, it was something else that threatened to overwhelm 20 million humans. The twin blade distractedly noticed the flash mail he had just received, from BlackRose.

_Subject: Hurry Up!_

_To: Kite_

_From: BlackRose_

_Look here, mister! We need to save The WORLD! Get your lazy butt to Theta Server NOW!_

Kite wiped the rest of the tears away with his sleeve. He had to be strong, for everybody's sake. For BlackRose, for all his friends! If he cracked under the pressure, he could lose Mistral to the Data Bugs, he would never hear Piros call him "He of Fair Eyes" again, Natsume's Spiral Edge blades would be permanently invisible and Mistral... she was so happy and cheerful!

Kite clenched his fists. He would not let BlackRose be lost to the evil force that threatened to engulf The WORLD. He needed to borrow courage from BlackRose, he needed to learn the little joys of life from Mistral and he needed to find his strength from Mia. The twin blade straightened up his hat, which had fallen askew when he had mourned Yasuhiko. He turned to leave, and took a last, lingering look over his shoulder at the statue. He grinned for the first time in months, and ran through the aisle, ready to take on some more monsters!


	2. Chapter 2

Mistral: Merrows Pha!

Mistral will extinguish even level 4 Flames with that spell!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything except Tower the Heavy Axeman and Madoushi the wavemaster!

Kite clenched his fists. Gardenia and BlackRose were giving it their all, hacking and slashing away! He quickly healed them with a swift Ol Repth in turn.

"Come on…keep going…yes!" He shouted as the words he longed to read flashed up in front of him. PROTECT BREAK. He selected the skill "Data Drain" and the bracelet began to activate. At once, Kite was with the huge monster inside of a place that was made of pure static. The beam shot through the monster, and Kite felt a white-hot stab of pain.

Before him, an ugly stone behemoth fled as his party members chased it down. Kite followed, stabbing away with resolve. Finally, BlackRose stole the last of its' hit points, and the stone began to crack, shattering into infinitesimal pieces. Kite and BlackRose high-fived each other, and Gardenia nodded, acknowledging the victory. She gated out, and then judging by Kite's Member Address list, logged off too.

"Let's see how we've helped The World!" BlackRose called, and the two gated out together…

Kite felt icy shock creeping through his body, and his disbelieving eyes stared at the now sickly horizon. A faint whine of static, just on the edge of hearing, seemed to hypnotise him. BlackRose took a few steps forward, her face telling a dreadful story. She promptly dropped her sword, the metallic clang hauling Kite from the depths of utter fear. He looked around, dreading what his eyes would show him.

The sky was not a sky. The sky was a horrific mess of art and coding floating around. The ground had crumbled into letters and numbers sporadically scattered throughout the town. Even the water wasn't saved from the awful plague of corruption that had infiltrated the server. This was not Carmina Gadelica…this was a ruined place.

"Kite…come on. We'll go to Mac Anu, and the theta server. It can't all be like this!" BlackRose summoned up the courage and stubbornness she had left. Kite nodded slowly, as if waking from a nightmare, and they switched servers.

"No!" The anguished cry didn't belong to BlackRose, but to Kite. She flinched, suddenly realising that she was not the only one of the pair who was sickened and disturbed by this untoward vision. However, she didn't suspect what would happen next. Kite entered three words into the Chaos Gate, and suddenly BlackRose was yanked away from the town by three golden rings encircling her avatar.

BlackRose stared at the fragments of coding chunks, spinning through the air. She slowly touched it, but her hand touched air. The ghostly characters flew through her hand, and she waved it a couple of times, shaking her head.

"Even random fields are broken…I've failed…again!" Kite muttered. BlackRose rolled her eyes.

"Kite? You're overreacting. It's just a broken game. It's not the end of the…." Her hand went to her mouth in shock.

"Haha. Very funny. It's not the end of the world. Nice pun." Kite snapped. BlackRose winced.

"Please…I didn't mean to say that, it was an accident!" Her way of dealing with the breakdown of The World was to act as if nothing major had happened. It wasn't working.

"Oops. I just 'accidentally' used a Sprite Ocarina. Whoops, I also 'accidentally' disbanded the party." He said slowly, spitefully, and faded in a flurry of glowing rings.

BlackRose sunk to the floor, sitting down weakly. The letters and symbols in the air whirled above her head as she mused unhappily on what had just happened.

Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground. The only field that hasn't been wrecked by that…that monster…Kite thought angrily. He entered the cathedral, blinking rapidly as the artificial yet real light streamed into his eyes. He stood before the statue of Aura, glaring at it.

"It's your fault! If you had never come to that dungeon, I would have been fine! You should have gone to a higher-level dungeon. You could have given this stupid bracelet to a level 99 player! Thanks to you, my friend is in a coma, a weak player has to do all the work, and I've broken The World!" His voice rose in volume until he was shouting. After the outburst, he sat in a pew, resting his head against the virtual wood, irritated. He felt lethargic, and faintly remembered the first, thought to be final, battle.

BlackRose and Gardenia fought with all their might. Kite had a steely glint in his eyes as he fought a personal battle against the one with the red wand…

We had come so far, yet knew so little…and now the true battle is about to begin…

"Hey…who's that?" A gruff, low voice echoed through the hallowed building. Kite didn't move. He remained unmoving, staring at a stained glass window.

"Uh oh…you don't think it's one of those things, do you? Those invincible monsters they talk about so much?" A high, feminine voice responded. Kite rolled his eyes.

"No, look. It's clearly an avatar…"

"Could it be a failed NPC? You know how they like to haunt odd areas…" The two characters approached him, and Kite turned his head lazily, and looked at them. The first voice belonged to a Heavy Axeman covered in armour from head to toe. The second belonged to a standard Wavemaster, the design similar to the other magic

users Kite had seen in the root towns…broken root towns. He stood up, and spoke,

"Can you go away? I'm kinda busy here." The Axeman shouldered his axe.

"It's a free world. What's eating you?" He retorted, not unkindly. Kite glared at him, and the Axeman returned the gaze.

"Tower, leave him to me. He clearly needs to talk!" The Wavemaster told the Axeman, Tower.

"Sheesh. Flash mail me when you're done, and I'll come and find you. I'm gonna level up now." Tower left, footsteps echoing in the huge church.

"So, what's up? My name is Madoushi!" The wavemaster sat down cross-legged, and Kite sighed, mimicking her.

"I'm angry." His reply was blunt and short.

"Yeah, but why? You can tell me!" He sighed and gave in.

"The World is broken, it's my fault, and…" He paused as guilt began to kick in. "…and I shouted at my friend when I'm in the wrong. I must go now." He got up, and left. Madoushi shrugged.

"Every little helps!" She remarked, before composing a flash mail.

"I'm sorry, BlackRose. It's just that everything I do creates more trouble, and the further we go, the more I wreck everything!" Kite was exasperated. BlackRose sighed.

"I know you're stressed. It's just that you spend all of your time moping, and to be honest, you're boring when you're moping! I don't care how this turns out-"

"What, so you don't care if The World goes completely offline and the comatose victims are doomed?"

"No, I meant if we get banned or something, it's just that I will stand by you, no matter what!" BlackRose stood up passionately. Kite lay back, going from sitting down to laying down, staring at the torn up sky. He then realised that BlackRose had said something that could be interpreted in many different ways, and sat bolt upright. BlackRose stared at him, eyebrows raised. She stifled a laugh as Kite slowly turned red, blushing.

"What? What's up?" Kite stammered.

"You're blushing!" BlackRose chuckled, and Kite lowered his head. BlackRose stopped, and there was an awkward silence. Suddenly, a ping sounded as an email icon appeared above Kite's head.

"One second, gotta check my email." Kite's avatar froze as the player behind him checked his email, thinking how awkward those few minutes had been.

"Got mail from Helba." Kite stated, unfreezing and getting to his feet. "It's about the fourth Phase…and the one we just beat." The .hackers had just defeated Phase 3, Magus. The Propagation had been an easy fight…too easy, and the result of the win lay before them.

"Alright. Let's do this!" Kite nodded, taking a fighting stance…


End file.
